The present invention relates to an electronic camera in which a lens barrier can be opened only in exposure, and more specifically, to an imaging apparatus of an electronic camera having a CCD shutter which is actuated to open by an opening signal of the lens barrier and to close the lens barrier by an electric charge storage termination signal from the CCD.
Additionally, the present invention relates to a multi-focus camera having photographing lens systems with at least two different focal lengths; one of the photographing lens systems being a standard lens and the other being a photographing lens system different from a standard lens system, the photographing lens system being capable of being used only when an operating member corresponding to the system is operated.
Moreover, the present invention relates to a magnification change mechanism of a camera having at least two photographing lenses with different focal length or object distance, the mechanism changing over a rotary direction of a motor in only one rotary direction thereof.
Conventionally, there are proposed imaging apparatus of electronic cameras having various construction which has a CCD serving as an imaging device. For example, there is proposed a CCD having a CCD shutter function accomplished in a camera to perform correct exposure by changing electric charge storage time of the CCD without a light quantity adjusting means such as a diaphragm or a shutter blade.
According to the construction, however, a member for preventing the CCD from being exposed to strong outside light is not arranged therein, and thus it is dangerously possible to burn the CCD by the strong outside light even if the camera does not have a diaphragm or a shutter blade.
Additionally, there are conventionally proposed above-mentioned types of multi-focus cameras having various construction. For example, there is proposed a camera having photographing lens systems with two different focal lengths, in which one of the systems is a standard lens and the other is a Telephoto lens for magnifying a far object or a Close-up lens for simply enjoying a close-up. In such a camera, when a photographer switches a change-over switch from an off-position to a Telephoto operating-position or a Close-up operating-position, the photographer can photograph performing the desired function. After photographing with the desired function, the photographer returns the switch from the operating-position to the off-position to be capable of photographing with the standard lens system.
According to the construction, however, after the photographer switches the switch therefrom to the Telephoto operating-position or the Close-up operating-position, if the photographer forgets to return the switch to the off-position, the switch can not return to the off-position automatically and the photographing lens system remains in different from the standard lens system. As a result, such a problem is encountered that even though the photographer wants to photograph using the standard lens system, the Telephoto function or the Close-up function is erroneously performed during a photographing period.
Moreover, there have been known magnification change mechanisms of cameras having various construction. For example, FIG. 13 shows a schematic view of a change-over mechanism for use in a magnification change mechanism as one example. In FIG. 13, the lens change-over movement is a lens reciprocating motion for moving between a photographing position where a lens is located on a photographing optical path and a retracting position where the lens is retracted from the path, and the operation is performed by the use of the normal and reverse rotations of a motor (M).
According to the construction, however, since the motor (M) always engages with the lenses through gears, it is necessary to rotate the motor (M) in both directions, the normal and reverse directions. Therefore, in order to rotate the motor (M) in the normal and reverse directions, it is necessary to arrange at least four switching means (normally transistors) (S) between a DC power (E) and the motor (M) and at least two output ports of a microcomputer in the camera for operating the switch means (S), with the result that it has some drawback that a control circuit is complex and expensive.
On the other hand, there is, as shown in FIG. 14, a method for changing over lenses by the normal rotation of a motor (M) conventionally (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 60-45214). That is, in this method, a lens barrel (D) has plural lenses (F) and (G) and is connected to the motor (M) through a reduction gear mechanism (H), whereby the barrel (D) rotates by the normal rotation of the motor (M) through the reduction gear mechanism (H) to change over between the lenses (F) and (G).
In this method, however, since each lens rotates 360 degrees with the barrel (D) for the change-over of the lenses, such a problem is encountered that it is necessary to define a large space for permitting rotation of the lenses together with the barrel (D) in a camera, resulting in large size.